April 2010
www.bountea.com  
In This Issue
April Garden Tasks
What Kind of Gardener Are You?
Quick Links
 Dear Reader,

It has been a busy  month – you can find a record of my gardening activities on the Bountea Blog.  I persuaded John to keep us updated on his adventures in the Philippines: John Evans – Quantum Soil.  Read about his amazing results uRoland in the gardensing BioTea – see the weird 4″ grubs they use to digest organic matter!Some year ago, in the forum of our website, I wrote about mountain animals and ecology.  I have rehabilitated those stories and added more on a separate personal blog called Rocky Mountain Living. You can again read about Lucy Fox and our other visitors.

This month I decided to do a different kind of article. Drawing on my experience as a psychologist, I put together a short questionnaire to help you decide what kind of gardener you are.  Have fun with it; you can find the scoring protocols by clicking on the link at the end.Our new catalog is a great success.  You can now order multiple copies on the website or simply by following this link: catalog.

Regards,

Roland Evans
Organic Bountea


April Garden Tasks
(April 15th — May 15th)Seeds outdoors:
Now is the time to plant any of the cold weather varieties you did not
get around to in March – salad mixes, chard, beets, Brassicas (cabbage,
broccoli, collards, kale, caulis, etc.), even fava beans. Don’t forget
to plant radishes where ever you have left over space.
Plant peas and pod peas when the soil warms
a little – sprout them first so you get fewer misses.Seeds indoors: If you did not start
your tomatoes yet, they will be a little late. Think about buying
transplants.  
Start your warm weather veggies — cucumbers, melons,
gourds, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash. If your soil warms
quickly, wait a little and plant outdoors as they often grow as quickly
when directly seeded in the garden
Start your tender annuals flowers
like nasturtiumVegetable
transplants: Time to put out your Brassica transplants: broccoli,
cabbage, cauliflower, etc. Keep starting seeds and transplanting into
space as it becomes available.

Pest control: place floating row cover
immediately over plants of cabbage family. Also, putting out larger
transplants will mitigate flea beetle damage.  

Roots: Buy mature asparagus plants and
put them in a well dug perennial bed.
Potatoes like fresh fairly
rich soil that is slightly acid. Put them in a trench and mound up as
they grow.

Ornamentals:
move volunteer perennials seedlings, cutback late summer blooming shrubs
like buddleia and blue mist spirea, Russian sage, harden off shrubs and
perennials purchased as container plants, prune winter kill from roses,
prune lilacs by harvesting blooms and cut out dead stalks

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Bountea Compost
Tea:  You should be ready for your second or even third
batch of the Bountea. Keep it
simply with just the Humisoil and Bioactivator. If you are looking for
fast leafy growth, add the M3 as instructed. Dilute 10 – 1 and apply
to the leaves of all your seedlings as well as the soil.

 

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What Kind Of Gardener Are You?

When I teach a gardening class, I ask student gardeners to
fill out my Gardening Resources Questionnaire. It examines the assets and challenges each person brings to
starting and maintaining a garden. The first section is dedicated to Personal Resources: the intentions,
knowledge and means available to you personally. Here is that section. Fill it out and see how you measure up (you can print this email out or
just write the numbers down elsewhere).Gardening
Resources Questionnaire
Evaluate the assets and challenges you experience in starting
and maintaining your garden.
Grade each asset on a 5-point scale according to the
scoring criteria:
5 – very strong; 4 – fairly strong; 3 – average; 2 –
challenged; 1 – very challenged.

Personal
Resources

Asset

How much time in your life can you realistically
allocate to gardening?

Unlimited = 5.
Weekends = 3.  Restricted
= 1.

 

How much energy and physical fitness do you have for the
work?

Very fit = 5.  Very restricted = 1.

 

How much money/budget can you allocate?

As much as needed = 5.  No budget = 1.

 

How strongly motivated are you to set up and maintain
your garden?

Very strongly = 5. Just a little = 1.

 

How much gardening knowledge and experience do you have?

10+ years = 5. 5 year = 3.  2 years = 2.
None = 1.

 

How much skill do you have in germinating and growing
plants?

Bright Green thumb = 5.  Brown thumb = 1.

 

How much patience and perseverance do you have to tend
your garden?

Lots = 5.
Not much = 1.

 

Personal Resources Score

 

Out of
a possible score of

35

Add the asset scores to give you your Personal Resources
Score. To find out what it means
(or what I think it means), click here…



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Thanks,
We really appreciate your business and the loving effort you spend on your soil and plants.  Help us help you better by giving is feedback on our service, products and communications.

Email us now while it’s on your mind!


Care for your Plants — Care for your Soil — Care for our Earth
the Bounteaway.

 

Organic Bountea
[email protected]  800-798-0765